Meet Sister Bonnie Chesser
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Sister Bonnie Chesser
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When I hear other Sisters tell their stories of their call
to religious life, I often feel like a bit of an “odd
ball”. I am also amazed at the persistence of our God.
I grew up in a very “Catholic” family in which religious
vocations were highly esteemed. My mother prayed that one
of her children would be a priest or a sister. The effect
this had on me was to make me more and more resistant to the
idea. I would often pray, “please God, don’t ask
me to be one of those Sisters”. However one day in grade
12, Sister Estelle was finishing off the section of our religion
class that dealt with vocations. I still remember exactly
where I was sitting in the chemistry lab at Marymount College
in Sudbury. My lab partner was Gloria. As Sister Estelle talked
about the formation process being 8 years of living the life
before final vows, God “struck” and I said to Gloria,
“You know it would be a wonderful experience to deepen
one’s faith to live with the Sisters, and you have all
that time to see if you belong, whereas in marriage you don’t
have that same opportunity to ‘try it out’, so I
think I am going to go the try it.” Gloria agreed and
said that she thought she might do this as well. So I did,
but Gloria had other plans.
When I arrived at the Motherhouse after my 19th birthday
in 1961, I felt a deep peace on my first day. There have been
many struggles through the years about this decision, but
for many years now I know it is the right one for me.
I had a degree in music piano teaching, an ARCT nearly completed
when I entered so I finished that off as a postulant. I taught
piano and theory for several years. However in the mid 1970's,
I felt a shift in my desire for ministry and began working
part-time in a parish with my good friend from childhood,
Father Don MacLellan. I began teaching guitar lessons for
liturgical use, developing prayer groups and doing the 19th
annotation of St. Ignatius with a number of lay people. Fr.
Don would work with the husbands and I would direct the wives.
It was a great foundation for ministry in the parish. We were
also very involved in the Cursillo movement. From the Sudbury
area I moved on to continue parish ministry in North Bay,
then Cobalt and then back to the Sudbury area again.
While on a sabbatical in St. Louis in 1984-85 my life took
another shift. I had grown up in an alcoholic home. My mother
suffered with this disease most of my life. In talking to
a counsellor about my own healing in this area, he directed
me to the 12-step groups for Adult Children of Alcoholics.
This opened up such great healing for me and it has led me
to do extensive training to work with others who come from
similar backgrounds. For the last 20 years I have been privileged
to work with the most courageous people imaginable. I have
witnessed so many miracles of God’s grace in seeing the
resiliency of the human spirit as men and women overcome unbelievable
obstacles to live full, fruitful lives. I presently work at
a place called the Family Enrichment Centre in Sudbury. We
have 8 counsellors on our staff. Two of us are Sisters. We
also have three women who comprise our support staff, who
do the intakes for clients, handle all the billing and office
work for us. Most of our staff are also in the Sisters of
St. Joseph Associate program. As a staff we meet once a month
to pray together as part of our staff meeting. The Associates
on staff also meet for lunch once a month to study our handbook
and share how we are living out our commitment. Just last
year we had about 600 clients come through our agency. We
are funded by a sliding fee scale, some employee EAP programs,
by my csj Community, as well as a few additional donations
from individuals who appreciate our work.. Our charism of
seeking unity and reconciliation wherever we are living and
working, is kept alive as we seek to be companions in healing
for each other and our clients.
The program that we offer that brings the most satisfaction
to me is the adaptation of a treatment program that I was
trained in at Caron Family Services in Wernersville, Pa. It
was a 5-day in-patient program for Adult Children of Alcoholics.
With the permission of the director of that program I have
adapted it for an out-patient setting. We offer it on 10 consecutive
evenings, plus 2 full weekends. We take 10 clients a year.
As a group they bond and provide support and healing for each
other. Many continue to meet for years afterwards to continue
the healing.
With so much chaos evident in the world today I find hope
in seeing the grass roots movement in people looking for and
finding a spiritual life in 12-step groups, in nature and
some even returning to their churches with more enthusiasm.
I have been richly blest by being a Sister of St. Joseph.
It has been a wonderful journey of many opportunities to enrich
my life through our annual retreats, through the support of
my Sisters in encouragement we receive from each other in
our ministries, through our challenges to further growth in
our community assemblies and Chapter gatherings. God has blessed
me with a great family as well. I have four faith-filled siblings
from whom I receive support.
As I look back on my life and think about the suffering
that came from having an alcoholic mother, I think of a quotation
I heard from the Linn brothers. “We know that healing
has taken place when we can say that what looked like a tragedy
was in fact my greatest gift”. Thank you mom for
all that you taught me.
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